The Kid LAROI is a star on the rise! After his song “Without You” became a worldwide viral hit, he made his Saturday Night Live debut alongside music industry powerhouse Miley Cyrus. At just 17 years old, the Australian crooner, born Charlton Kenneth Jeffrey Howard, has already worked with the likes of Justin Bieber and the late rapper Juice WRLD — and has accrued more than a billion streams across all music platforms! Here’s 5 more things to know about the singer.
If you’re on the app Tik Tok, you’ve likely heard The Kid LAROI’s voice. He first found success on the platform after name-checking TikTok’s second most followed user, Addison Rae, in an original song. Just days later she posted a video reacting to it, which racked up 10 million views, and saw thousands of others making their own videos singing along to the clip. A few months ago, a clip from “Without You,” which touches on relationship problems, exploded on the app. It has been used in more than three million videos, and transcended social media to the charts, hitting the top 10 in more than a dozen countries. The Kid LAROI now has nearly 29 million monthly listeners on Spotify. He’s also become somewhat of a Gen Z icon, thanks to his savvy social media use, and openness about previously taboo topics like mental health.
The stage name The Kid LAROI, which is a far cry from his birth name Charlton Kenneth Jeffrey Howard, is actually a reference to his indigenous heritage. His mother comes from the Aboriginal community, Kamilaroi.
In order to fully pursue his dreams, the teenager left Australia, and set his sights on California. “It’s a whole different world than where I’m from. It’s a lot faster, with a lot more stuff going on. It’s kind of weird coming from Australia and being thrown into the mix in L.A., but at the same time I feel like, ‘this is what I was always meant to do.’ So it kind of comes naturally for me. I do sit back sometimes and say, ‘Damn, this s*** is crazy,’ but I’ve kind of been wanting to do this my whole life, so it’s amazing to finally get the opportunity to do this because not a lot of people where I’m from get this kind of opportunity,” he told Forbes.